Tales of a Wannabe Wanderer

I love Italian food. It’s my favorite food, and I could probably eat Italian food every day of my life and be ok. Fat, but ok. So, I’m dedicating a post to Italian food, authentic from Italy. There won’t be as much writing, just a lot of food pictures, which you probably prefer anyways.

Pizza is synonymous with Italy. Here in Italy, you’ll either go fancy and order a whole pizza for yourself or you go fast-food style. The fancy pizzas come laden with yummy toppings and delicious sauce. As you’ll notice, unless you order a cheese pizza, you won’t get much gooey cheese. Also, it’ll arrive unsliced, and you’ll be expected to eat with a knife and fork. Don’t go all barbarian on your pizza as I did (yes, I even dared lick my fingers). Also, since pizzas get cold quickly, it’s actually polite NOT to wait for everyone to get their food before chowing down on yours. Eat whenever you get your food.

If you want pizza as fast food, you can go into any number of pizza places with huge displays of pre-made pizza ready to go. You point out which ones you want and approximately how big of a piece you want. The server will cut it up for you, weigh it, and determine your price from that weight. If it’s been sitting there for a while, they’ll also nuke it quickly so it’s steaming hot. Personally, I think this is a fair solution. If you pay by-the-slice, then what if my slice is a lot smaller than my friend’s slice. I wouldn’t want to pay the same price for that. This is like a super-gourmet Little Caesar’s.

And of course, you have to eat a LOT of pasta while in Italy. It’s non-negotiable. We ate a lot of lasagna also, but I’ve realized it’s impossible for me to photograph lasagna in an appetizing manner.

Our hotel in Rome recommended a fantastic Ethiopian restaurant nearby. Ethiopian cuisine generally involves large amounts of meat and eating with your hands, so we definitely had to try it. (Though, surprisingly, in LA, there is a delicious vegan Ethiopian place run by people who like they’d fit into the hipster ethos)

In Florence, there are two kinds of food that are relatively unique to the area. The first is Florentine steak which I’ve heard described as a “phone book of meat”. They weigh it by kilogram, so I’d have to agree with that description.

The second is lampredotto, or tripe sandwich. This particular one is from the stall next to the Church of Dante, but you’ll find this dish all over Florence. Rick LOVED this, since he adores eating tripe.

You can also find lampredotto at a stand inside the San Lorenzo food market. I always enjoy walking through a good food market, and we spent many afternoons wandering the aisles here. Keep your eyes open for this seafood fried goodness.

In Verona, my friend, Michele, served us a delicious cake (after cooking us a yummy dinner), traditionally served during Christmas (but just as good when we were there in February).

He heated it up and dusted it with powdered sugar. So delicious!

On our last day, we chowed down on these fried snacks on the recommendation of another local friend, Daniele. It was a filling snack for while we were on the train to our next destination. For the life of me, I can’t remember what these are called. I’ve tried looking them up on Google, and all I get back are empanada recipes. Anyone know?

Not pictured: the requisite Chinese and Indian food we eat in every country, because Chinese and Indian food is generally good worldwide. We spent a couple nights OD-ing on fried rice. Yum.

And now I’m craving Italian food desperately. I’m off to scrounge up something in kitchen.